Young Maiden's Chronicles: Exotic Inventory
by Private Winters
Summary: Between the outskirts of Touhou-ri Village and the Forest of Magic is an antique shop called Kourindou. This antique shop, stocked with items that have drifted in to Gensokyo from the outside world, seldom gets any visitors except for a few regulars. The shop's keeper oftentime tries to explain his merchandises, with results ranging from useless to hilarious... A fan remake of CoLA
1. Package from Mrs Kirisame

**Kirisame General Store; Touhou-ri Village**

**9 years ago**

The Kirisame General Store is bustling with activity today, both inside and outside, not because of a huge customer flow, but rather because the store's owner is having an inventory check, with assistance from his employees.

"Textiles, wooden carvings, decorative mantlepieces, ornamental swords..." Store owner Kirisame Daisuke said as he went through the inventory checklist.

"You missed these." Said a white-haired man as he placed a box before Daisuke.

Daisuke eyed the box briefly before raising his head to look at the white-haired man. "Fine china vases. Thank you for reminding me, Morichika."

The man, Morichika, waved his hand a bit. "All part of my job." He said. "By the way, your wife said she has something she wants me to pick up..."

Daisuke glanced over his shoulder at his home, the Kirisame Manor which is just down the street. "She's with my daughter right now. You can go ask her yourself. I'm very busy right now. Just tell the servants that I gave you permission to enter."

Morichika bowed politely. "Pardon my interruption, and thank you for the directions." With that, the white-haired man walked past Daisuke, letting the store owner resume his work.

...

**Kirisame Manor**

The Kirisame Manor isn't huge in any way, but it still bore the marks of a rich family being its tenants, with intricate paintings decorating its hallways, and bonsai trees and a koi pond decorating its central garden. There are also servants and the occasional bodyguards moving about in the hallways, doing their jobs. In every way, the Kirisame Manor looked like a typical Yamato manor...

With the exception of one room.

Instead of a paper sliding door like any Yamato household would have, the room is closed from the hallway by a solid wooden door with a western-looking door handle, and hung on the door is a small sign that says "Marisa's room" written not in Kanji or katakana, but in a western script.

If one was to press an ear against the door, they would hear the voice of a middle-aged woman speaking in a way that sounded like she is telling a story.

Indeed, that's what is happening right now: the mistress of the manor is telling her daughter a story.

_"And so, Peter and his friends held their hands together as they shared the effort of enduring the excessive energy of the Power Stone which threatened to tear them apart. Then with a burst of stamina, Peter is able to briefly control the energy._

_'You're mortal! But how?!' Exclaimed Ronan as he watched in utter disbelief of Peter's containing of the Power Stone's energy._

_Peter, with a stare fueled by defiance, delivered to Ronan, 'You said it yourself, freak! We're the Guardians of the Galaxy!'_

_After throwing the warlord's insult from the previous day back at him, Peter then opened his left hand, firing much of the Power Stone's energy at Ronan._

_Ronan yelled out in agony as the energy of the Power Stone quickly overwhelmed his body, before it tore him apart and reduced him to dust! And so ends the villainous career and life of Ronan the Accuser, for good!_

_Then with an amazing tolerance of agony, Gamora quickly slammed a container orb on the Power Stone, encasing it before it could kill anyone else."_

As the mistress of the Kirisame household paused her storytelling briefly, a tiny pair of hands can be heard clapping. Those tiny hands belonged to the young mistress of the Kirisame household.

"Awe-some!" The young mistress said as she continued clapping her hands. "They kicked Ronan's ass!"

The mistress knelt down, coming face-to-face with her daughter, before raising a finger to flip the young mistress's fiery red hair, the same shade of red as her own. "Language, Genevieve. I told you a dozen times."

The young mistress groaned upon hearing that. "_Moooom_! Stop callin' me Genevieve!"

The mistress grinned a bit. "Why not? It's your name, Genevieve Rainymist..."

The young mistress, Genevieve, groaned again. "But I prefer bein' called Marisa!"

Before the mistress could tease her daughter any further, someone knocked on the door of the bedroom.

"Alright, Genevieve, I'll be right back to tell you the ending to the story..." The mistress said, earning yet another groan from Genevieve.

The mistress stood up and went to the door. With a push of the handle, she opened it...

To find a bespectacled white-haired man standing at the other side.

"Oh, it's you." The mistress greeted. "Why are you here?"

"商品があるって言ったのか?" Said the man.

The mistress scoffed. "Rinnosuke, I know you speak my language. Don't pretend you don't."

The man, Rinnosuke, looked like he was embarrassed about something. He cleared his throat a bit before speaking again, "As you wish, Mrs. Kirisame..." this time in the mistress's language.

The mistress groaned. "And don't be so formal. We're old friends, remember?" She told him. "And call me by my real name, please..."

Rinnosuke stiffened a giggle. "Well then, have it your way...Claire Rainymist..."

The mistress, Claire, smiled in satisfaction. "Good enough." She said. "Why are you here, anyway?"

"About that..." Rinnosuke responded. "You have something you want me to pick up?"

"Oh, that." Claire said. "It's right here..." She added as she bent down to pick up a small chest she left next to the door. "Here's everything I asked you to pick up, including the chest itself."

Rinnosuke scrutinized the chest for a bit. His senses is telling him that one of the few items inside the chest is a device capable of controlling people, start wars and destroy worlds. But it sounded ridiculous to him, so he assumed it must be his senses being wrong.

"That's all?" He asked.

"That's all." Claire answered. "I've got nothing else to pawn off this week."

Rinnosuke scrutinized the chest a bit more before taking it off Claire's hands.

"Anything else?" Rinnosuke asked.

"My little girl says hi." Claire answered as she glanced over her shoulder.

"Hi, Rinno~" Genevieve, or Marisa as she preferred to be called, greeted with a wave of her right hand.

Rinnosuke waved back with a smile. "Telling her some of your strange stories again?" He then asked Claire.

"You mean _awesome_ stories..." Claire rebuked in a friendly way.

Rinnosuke laughed a bit at that. "Well, then. I'll see you again, Claire..."

With that, Rinnosuke turned and left.

Claire then closed the door.

"Alright, mom. Now tell me what happened to Peter and his friends after they kicked Ronan's ass!" Marisa said excitedly.

Claire slowly turned around to face her daughter, and smiled.

"I was just about to get to that..."

* * *

**Character profiles**

**Kirisame Daisuke**

Birthday: 16th of June, 2082

Birthplace: Gensokyo

Species: Mundane Human

Skills and Abilities: none

Hobby: Collecting fine art pieces.

Likes: Fine art pieces.

Dislikes: Unnecessary waste of resources.

A merchant known all over Gensokyo, Kirisame Daisuke runs a huge market of trading fine goods. He has all sorts of valuable items in inventory, from simple household items to intricate pieces of art, all of which he would sell at times.

Though there are occasions where he deemed something to be priceless, and kept for his own collections.

He earned some flak from his peers for marrying a western woman, and rearing a half-western daughter who behaves like a delinquent.

...

**Morichika Rinnosuke**

Birthday: 30th of September, 1875

Birthplace: Gensokyo

Species: Half-Youkai

Skills and Abilities: able to recognize the name and function of an item with a glance (not always correct, though).

Hobby: Collecting strange items.

Likes: Fancy-looking items.

Dislikes: Shoplifters and frauds.

At first glance, nothing's strange about Rinnosuke aside from his silvery white hair. In actuality, he's a half-Youkai hybrid who's older than Gensokyo's current human population. Only the Kirisame family members know about his heritage, though they don't mind it as he's a friendly person who regularly interacts with them and helps with their businesses.

He has the ability to know about the function and purpose of an object by looking at it. Although not only is this a hit-and-miss, the descriptions given are sometimes incomplete, leading to oftentimes embarrassing mistakes that could've been avoided by simply reading the instruction manual.

...

**Claire Amanda Rainymist**

Birthday: 7th of April, 2077.

Birthplace: "Not Gensokyo"

Species: Mundane Human

Skills and Abilities: none.

Hobby: Retelling stories from the outside world.

Likes: Fancy items, action-heavy stories.

Dislikes: Traditionalists.

Claire Amanda Rainymist is the only person living in Gensokyo who isn't really born in it. There are rumors that she may have been from the outside world, but she has declined to respond to any of those rumors.

Likes to make a lot of references to the outside world's works of fiction, even telling them as stories to her daughter.

Gave her daughter the middle name of "Genevieve".

* * *

And so ends the introduction of _Young Maiden's Chronicles: Exotic Inventory_, which is _Curiosity of Lotus Asia_ adapted for the YMC-verse.

You're probably wondering: "Is that the climatic scene of _Guardians of the Galaxy_ that Marisa's mom is telling as a story?" The answer for that: yes, that is indeed the climatic scene of _Guardians of the Galaxy_. When other girls get told stories about fairies and magic, Marisa gets a retelling of the Marvel Cinematic Universe films.

And you're now probably wondering: "How does a Gensokyian know about the plot of a movie from the outside world?" Well, about that, let's just say Claire's not exactly from Gensokyo...

Actually, that would explain how Marisa knows about outside world pop cultures: it's because she learned about them from her mom...

"And that, as they say, is that..."

_Afterword ends here._


	2. Never Break The Chain

**Kourindou**

**Present day**

Morichika Rinnosuke is not your average shopkeeper.

Aside from being a half-human, half-Youkai hybrid, Rinnosuke also has the ability to distinguish the method of usage of an item by just looking at it, whether if it's a simple piece of rock or a piece of advanced technology that fell into Gensokyo from the outside world. However, the ability doesn't distinguish the metaphorical from the literal, and he often ended up causing an Incident at worse, or humiliated himself at best, or sometimes both. Though he eventually learned from experience, and got a friend to do a more thorough interpretation for him, thereby reducing the number of such misinterpretation-induced incidents.

Rinnosuke is currently seated behind his desk, reading the day's issue of _Bunbunmaru Shinbun_. His antique shop, called Kourindou, has just been tidied up, with the not-for-sale items moved to the warehouse. There are no customers today, and he assumed it might be due to Scarlet Mist covering the skies of Gensokyo.

The ringing of a bell signaled to him that someone has just stepped through the door.

"Welcome to Kourindou." Rinnosuke greeted - in Yamato - the person without looking away from his newspaper. "I have many things in here. Perhaps you might find something that would interest you?" He continued with his greeting, again in Yamato, and again without looking away from his newspaper.

That someone didn't answer him. Rather, he only finds out who that person is when his newspaper forcibly taken out of his hands.

"Rinno, just how many times have I told you not to read this BS? The goddamn articles literally don't even tell the same story as the photos." Said the red-haired, middle-aged western woman - in a western language - who is wearing a shirt, leather jacket and shorts from the outside world, as she scrunched up the newspaper and threw it over her shoulder.

Rinnosuke remained stoic as he adjusted his glasses. "Isn't _Bunbunmaru_ the most reliable source of news?"

The woman scoffed. "It _was_, when it's managed by Ami. Her _granddaughter_, on the other hand, only cares about writing articles she deems interesting. Which is all literal freakin' nonsense..."

Despite his stoic personality, Rinnosuke can't help but find the western woman's brutally honest statement funny, as he smiled a little bit at it. Then he raised a hand to his mouth, and cleared his throat. "I'm sure you're not here just to insult my choice of newspaper, Mrs. Kirisame..."

The woman's lips twitched a bit. "I've told you to call me Claire Rainymist. And yes, I have a reason for bein' here right now." That said, she then picked up a crate from the floor and placed it on the desk.

Rinnosuke stands up to take a look at the content of the crate. He then begins the inspection by pulling something out of it.

"Guess what that one does~" Claire teased as she tapped a finger on the object Rinnosuke is holding.

Rinnosuke inspected the item. It appeared to be a small device with a glass screen in the middle, and several buttons to the left and right of the screen.

"It's a device... that allows its user to create and destroy worlds on a whim?" The half-Youkai shopkeeper came to his conclusion, though he is unsure about it.

Claire grinned a bit upon hearing that. "It's a PSP, and it works just like the Gameboy you picked up last week, but more advanced." She then explained. "And no, the worlds in question are fictional, so no need to smash it."

"It was just _one_ time..." Rinnosuke protested, albeit in a tone that suggest he found it actually pretty funny.

Claire then dug around the inside of the crate before pulling out what looked like an old magazine. "Heh..." She scoffed as she flipped the magazine open and read its content. "'People all over the world are glad that the Soviet Union has lowered its flag, and will never be raising it ever again.' As if nobody would've learnt about it in- wait a sec..." She paused a bit as she brought the magazine close to her eyes. "'_recent news_'? Just how old is this freakin' magazine?"

With that, the redheaded western woman closed the magazine, and put it on the desk before sliding it toward Rinnosuke.

Rinnosuke slid it back to Claire immediately. "If this magazine is old enough to warrant such a comment from you, then I don't think I have any use for it either." He said. "Except as tinder for starting a fire."

Claire stifled a laugh. "Y'know..." She then changed the subject. "You haven't visited my place, or Touhou-ri Village, in... how long has it been? Six years? Every time in these past six years, it was me visitin' you, or deliverin' messages to you in behalf of my hubby, or Genevieve coming over 'ere..."

Rinnosuke dodged the initial question by interrupting Claire with a question of his own, "Speaking of them, how have they been doing in the last 10 months?"

The redheaded western woman knew right away that the half-Youkai shopkeeper is dodging her question, but paid it no mind. "Well, Daisuke the Buffoon and Genevieve got into a massive argument about the latter usin' magic. Then Genevieve ran away from home, and wasn't seen again until three weeks later, where Reimu found her tagging alongside Mima..."

"You know the evil spirit?" Rinnosuke asked, perking up at the mention of that name.

"I first met her when I was Genevieve's age. She's still alive, and hasn't gone bananas then. Although she apparently got better when Genevieve met her that time..." Claire explained. "Anyway, Genevieve got her tiny little ass handed to Reimu. Then I grounded her when she got back, and gave Daisuke a good ol' chidin' for how he treated her..." She then shrugged. "Oh, and then she got into a potion accident that turned her hair blonde. Now she looks like Sabrina Spellman."

"I knew there was something different about her in the past few months..." Rinnosuke remarked.

The redheaded western woman rolled her eyes and shrugged. _It isn't immediately obvious to him?_ She thought.

"Anything else you'd like to add?" Rinnosuke then asked.

"That'd be for next time, Rinno." Claire answered. She then produced a small rectangular device from one of the pockets on her leather jacket. "So, care for a song before I go back to the manor?"

The half-Youkai shopkeeper shook his head slightly. "You should go back home as soon as possible. Daisuke and the servants must be worried about you going out alone when there's an Incident going on..." He answered, glancing out of the window to take note of the Scarlet Mist outside.

"Nah." Claire answered casually. "Ya gonna need to know how to enjoy yourself."

With that said, the redheaded western woman then tapped on the small device once. Following that, a music began to emit from the device.

_"~Listen to the wind blow~_

_~Watch the sun rise~_

_~Running in the shadows~_

_~Damn your love, damn your lies~"_

Then as the song begins a chorus, Claire decided to sing along with it. The mistress of the Kirisame household is no natural singer, but nonetheless, she is quite good with following the lyrics. Though she needs to work on her syncing.

_"~And if you don't love me now~_

_~You will never love me again~_

_~I can still hear you saying you would never break the chain~_

_~Never break the chain~_

_~And if you don't love me now~_

_~You will never love me again~_

_~I can still hear you saying you would never break the chain~_

_~Never break the chain~"_

As the chorus ended, Claire ceased her singing for the rest of the song and simply listened to it alongside Rinnosuke.

The half-Youkai shopkeeper interpreted the lyrics, or specifically the chorus, as something the redheaded western woman wanted to say to him, and he thinks he understand the intent of the message.

He just hoped that he didn't misinterpret anything in a hilariously embarrassing way...

* * *

So instead of Marisa/Rinnosuke like in _CoLA_, we'll be having Marisa's mom/Rinnosuke here?

Yup. Although I should clarify that 1) they don't have any "things" for each other (Rinno is a regular shopkeeper guy while Claire is the mistress of a rich family), and 2) their relationship won't be the focus of this story, though it will form the basis of some of the chapters.

Reimu and Marisa are not in this chapter because it takes place at the same time as _Seasonal Fantasy_'s _EoSD_ arc, where they've gone to get rid of the Scarlet Mist. They will be appearing in the next chapter.

Yes, that is Fleetwood Mac's _The Chain_ that is playing on Claire's portable music player. And yes, her singing the "if you don't love me now" part is intentional on my part. Since the intended message is so obvious, I guess I don't need to explain it at all. That said, why does she have 1970s songs despite this story taking place in _2115_? Seems that Claire Rainymist has a _great_ taste in music...

"And that, as they say, is that."

_Afterword ends here._


	3. Ooh Child

**It's been a long, long time, everyone. It's n othanks to dumb government censorship that I haven't been able to update anything on Fanfiction for so long.**

* * *

**Kourindou**

"You tried distracting a vampire mistress by challenging her to a _dance-off_?"

"Yep!"

"And it actually _worked_?"

"She ain't got any idea what I was doing, but yep!"

It was just a day after the Scarlet Mist Incident has been solved. Marisa came to Kourindou to brag to Rinnosuke about how she helped give Reimu the opportunity to retaliate against and defeat Remilia Scarlet, the culprit of the Incident. Marisa exaggerated a few details, but the story she gave is otherwise completely true.

"And then the dang brat claimed just now that she enacted the whole Incident as part of her alleged plan to meet me and Reimu in person, 'test our might' she said, to see if we're worthy of becomin' her friends..." Marisa continued telling her story to Rinnosuke. "I ain't buyin' any of that, since it's pretty dang obvious that she came up with it on the fly." She finished the story as she crossed her arms over her chest.

"Your point being that this vampire mistress is a brat with a big ego?" Rinnosuke asked without looking up from the merchandise checklist he is currently compiling.

"A _really_ big ego. Well, maybe not as big as Ego the Living Planet..." Marisa added. "But she's got a pretty dang big one, that's for sure."

Rinnosuke briefly looked up from his checklist at Marisa. "Big enough that it wouldn't fit in here?"

"Yep!" Marisa emphasized by throwing her arms up.

Rinnosuke looked at the witch for just a few more seconds before turning back to the checklist.

"That's it?" Marisa became irritated by Rinnosuke's lack of response. "Ya coulda made a witty quip or two!"

"If I were to make a quip, it will be dull enough that you can use it as a hammer." The shopkeeper responded in a dull manner.

Marisa pouted. "Ya ain't no fun, Rinno..."

Just then, the front door of the shop opened, and in came a familiar redheaded woman.

"Genevieve, so nice to see you here!" Claire Rainymist greeted as she entered Kourindou while carrying a box.

Marisa groaned in annoyance. "Mom!"

"Oh, right! I mean, Marisa!" Claire responded with a playful sarcasm.

Marisa sighed while mumbling about her mother's name for her.

"That aside..." Claire then approached the counter and set the box of scraps down, right on top of Rinnosuke's checklist. "Rinno, anything in here you'll find useful?"

Marisa and Rinnosuke both looked inside the box to see what is in it.

"Looks like it's just a box of scraps." Marisa said as she started digging through the contents of the box. "And not even the same kind that Tony Stark had in a cave."

"You can't build an arc reactor or a suit of armor out of them, that's for sure." Claire agreed.

Marisa continued to dig through the box while Rinnosuke watched. The witch's rummaging revealed that it is indeed full of scraps of all sorts, none of which looked like they could be repurposed in any way...

...Until the rummaging turned up a pair of revolvers.

Rinnosuke looked intrigued, as he took a closer look at the revolvers. "These are...firearms..."

Claire stepped forward to take a closer look as well. "Specifically, these are Colt 1851 Navy revolvers. It is a percussion cap revolver that can hold six .36 caliber bullets at a time. It wasn't exclusively used by navies, and the 'navy' in its name is just the original creator's tribute to..." She stopped her description of the revolvers upon noticing Marisa and Rinnosuke staring at her awkwardly. "W-well, at least that's what I can tell from a magazine I've read decades ago."

Marisa looked at the revolvers for a bit more. Then she placed one down on the counter, and held the other one in her right hand, finger on the trigger but muzzle pointed away from anyone.

"No matter what stories they have behind them," Marisa said as she playfully pulled the hammer of the revolver with her thumb. "they're freakin' cool, and I wanna keep-"

At that moment, the witch accidentally pulled the trigger, and a loud bang rang out as the revolver fired a shot, which thankfully only took out a vase on a nearby shelf.

"I was not expecting them to still be loaded..." Marisa said awkwardly as she slowly placed the revolver next to the other one on the counter.

"Trigger discipline, girl..." Claire mumbled as she face-palmed.

Rinnosuke then analyzed the revolvers closely.

"These two aren't even a decade old..." The shopkeeper concluded as he picked up one of the revolvers by the barrel. He then pointed at the logo that is engraved on the grip. "In fact, they looked like they only left the factory a week ago..."

Marisa stared at the engravings closely. "I've got no idea what it's saying..."

"I'm no magic user..." Claire said. "But I do know that translation spells only work on speeches, not texts."

Rinnosuke put the revolvers down, gently so as to not accidentally set them off. He did, however, make the mistake of keeping one of them pointed at Marisa and Claire. The mother-daughter duo quickly noticed, and moved in to turn that revolver away from them.

"In any case, since these are first and foremost fully functional weapons, I will store them in a safe place until they are needed for a later time." Rinnosuke claimed, as he then put the revolvers back into the box of scraps.

"Safe, as in gets-stolen-by-fairies-the-moment-you're-not-lookin' safe." Claire sarcastically brought up.

"That was just _one_ time, Mrs. Kirisame..." Rinnosuke countered.

"Whatever!" Claire countered back.

"In any case, the two of ya can keep actin' like an old married couple." Marisa said as she turned to walk out of the antique shop. "I'm headin' back to the Shrine."

There wasn't even an argument to speak of, so Claire and Rinnosuke stopped instantly. as they watched the witch begin to leave.

"By the way, Genevieve..." Claire attempted to grab her daughter's attention. "I heard that you had a hand in stopping the Scarlet Mist Incident. What did you do?"

Marisa froze. She hated it when her mother called her "Genevieve". So she decided to pretend she didn't hear her mother by doing something that would, for her mother's sake, answer the question at the same time.

"Ooh-oo child~

Things are gonna get easier~

Ooh-oo child~

Things'll get brighter~

Ooh-oo child~

Things are gonna get easier~

Ooh-oo child~

Things'll get brighter~"

She started singing as she dance-walked out of the antique shop...

Rinnosuke blinked in confusion, as he wondered what Marisa is doing.

Claire, on the other hand, _instantly_ figured out what Marisa is conveying, and burst into laughter.

"Oh. My. God! You challenged the culprit to a _dance-off_?! In exactly the same way Star-Lord did in _Guardians of the Galaxy_?!"

Marisa continued to pretend she heard nothing, as she casually dance-walked out of the shop while continuing to sing.

Rinnosuke continued to stare at the entrance where Marisa exited the shop from, still utterly confused as to what the witch is doing, and why her mother suddenly started laughing. Meanwhile, Claire continued laughing at the mental picture of her daughter challenging a warlord with a weapon of mass destruction to a dance-off...

* * *

It's been a _looong_ time since this has been last updated...

Anyway, here's the long-awaited third chapter of _Exotic Inventory_, which as I mentioned before, will be taking place after the _EoSD_ arc of _Seasonal Fantasy_, which I just finished about a week ago.

Speaking of which, I think I'll put _Seasonal Fantasy_ on hold for a bit as I work on a few more chapters of _Exotic Inventory_, all taking place after the former's _EoSD_ arc but before the _PCB_ arc.

Her actually getting Marisa's _Guardians of the Galaxy_ reference. Just makes you wonder if Marisa's mom is actually from the United States, does it?

"And that, as they say, is that..."

_Afterwords end here._


	4. Wham-Bam-Shang-A-Lang

**Kourindou**

"Starry nights, sunny days~

I always thought that love should be that way~

Then comes a time that you're ridden with doubt~

You've loved all you can and now you're all loved out~

Ooh ooh baby, we've been a long, long way~

And who's to say where we'll be tomorrow~?

Well, my heart says no, but my mind says it's so~

That we got a love, is it a love to stay~?"

Claire and Rinnosuke stopped their organizing of the antique shop when Marisa suddenly switched on her music-playing device, turned up the volume, and sang along with the song that is being played while dancing to the beat.

"What is she doing?" Rinnosuke asked. His stoic personality is unable to register the context of what he is seeing.

"Singing and dancing to the song _Wham-Bam-Shang-a-Lang_ by Silver." Claire, who totally understands what she is seeing, answered.

"What is the context of this?" Rinnosuke asked for clarity.

"My girl's just enjoying herself." Claire responded.

Rinnosuke sighed. "Well, Claire, would you kindly tell her to turn down the volume of her... music player? I am trying to work here, and she is distracting me..."

As soon as the half-Youkai shopkeeper finished that, the sound of porcelain shattering came from Marisa's direction, followed by the witch shutting off her music player on her own.

"Heh heh... Whoopsie..." Marisa said as she awkwardly shoved a small pile of porcelain fragments under one of the shelves with her boots.

Rinnosuke reacted to the minor accident with an eyeroll.

"_Marisa Genevieve Kirisame-Rainymist..._" Claire said to her daughter menacingly. "You do know that Rinnosuke has a 'once broken, considered sold' policy, right?"

"I did put up a notice specifically mentioning it..." Rinnosuke confirmed as he pointed over his shoulders at a sign bearing one such message.

Marisa then let out a nervous laugh. "I'm... uh... kinda broke for the moment..." She informed.

Rinnosuke seemed to glare at Marisa for that response from the witch.

"Ain't got much customer at the magic shop lately..." Marisa nervously added. "And bein' a Guardian of the Sanctuary ain't a paying job..."

Rinnosuke continued glaring, with Claire joining in with her arms crossed.

"Never mind." Rinnosuke then said with a sigh. "That already broken teacup was literally worthless, anyway. I would be a scammer if I asked you to pay for it."

Claire followed that with her stifling a giggle. Apparently, she knew about it all along, and was just messing with her daughter.

Marisa sighed in relief. "Jeez. And I was thinkin' of gettin' the Makai outta dodge."

"Don't even think of doing that, young lady." Claire warned.

Marisa gulped from her mother's warning. "A-anyway, remember those pair of guns from a few days ago?" She tried to change the subject.

"You mean the ones you accidentally shot Rinnosuke with?" Claire said, earning an uncomfortable stare from the half-Youkai shopkeeper.

"I... still have them in storage." Rinnosuke answered. "Kourindou isn't a weapons shop, so nobody came asking for them. Not even the GPF."

"Great!" Marisa beamed. "Can I have 'em?"

"Why do you need a pair of revolvers anyway, Genevieve?" Claire asked out of curiosity. "Don't you already have some offensive spell you learned from that evil spirit mentor of yours?"

Marisa groaned at being called Genevieve. "Can't do nothin' if I lose my magic wand in the middle of a fight." She then explained. "I'm gonna use 'em as my backup weapons instead. 'Sides, the GPF looked cool using their guns."

"You do realize that the GPF's firearms are modified according to Police Chief Sonozika's specifications to fire danmaku instead of real bullets, no?" Rinnosuke pointed out.

"I sorta found out how they did those modifications..." Marisa said.

Claire raised her eyebrows upon hearing that. "How did you find out about what is considered classified information by the GPF?"

"Well, they really suck at keepin' stuff classified." Marisa said. "Found a piece of paper detailing it while strollin' round Seihou-Ri. They oughtta keep track of all their stuff."

Both Rinnosuke and Claire collectively rolled their eyes at what they just heard.

"And they were supposed to render the Village Guardswomen Guild a thing of the past?" Claire muttered to herself.

"Well, can I have 'em now?" Marisa asked Rinnosuke. "The gun, I mean."

Rinnosuke pondered about it for a bit, before leaning down to dig below the counter, and then coming back up with the twin revolvers in question, which he placed on the counter. "Here..." He said dully.

"Cool!" Marisa went and picked up the revolvers. She tried twirling them in her hands, but fumbled and dropped both of them on the floor. Luckily, neither revolvers are loaded at the moment. "Well, gonna need some practicing with 'em, but that'll do." She said as she bent down to pick them up.

"You do, however, need to _pay_ for them..." Rinnosuke then informed. "And they cost 1200 apiece."

"So that makes it 2400 in total." Claire added.

Marisa became nervous again. "Uh... can you put those on my tab? I promise I'll pay the next time I come here..."

With that, the witch turned her music player back on, playing the same song from before as loudly as it was, as she made a mad dash for the entrance, and went out of it.

"Again?" Claire voiced her thought out loud.

"Aren't you going to go after her?" Rinnosuke pointed out for Claire.

The redheaded woman shrugged. "She's a witch with a flying broomstick, and I'm just an ordinary human. No damn way I could possibly catch up with her."

Rinnosuke then pinched the bridge of his nose. "That was a good point..."

Meanwhile, outside the antique shop, Marisa took to the air on her flying broomstick, with the twin revolvers as her loot, sang loudly to her heart's content as she is headed straight for her house in the Forest of Magic.

"We got a wham bam shang-a-lang~

And a sha-la-la-la-la-la thing~

Wham bam shang-a-lang~

And a sha-la-la-la-la-la thing~"

* * *

Another day in the life of Morichika Rinnosuke the half-Youkai shopkeeper...

Actually, the idea of having each chapter be named after a pop song, and have that pop song be sung by Marisa or her mom within the chapter itself is not my initial idea for _Exotic Inventory_. It only came about after I dropped the implied romance between Claire and Rinnosuke (seen in chapter 2) for being way too awkward to properly play out (especially since Claire is a married woman with a daughter). Funny how a good idea can turn out to be a bad one when you think about it later into your life...

Anyway, since this is supposed to be a slice of life story, don't expect anything big to happen here. Maybe it'll reference the big events that happened in the main series _(Spirit_ Dream, _Seasonal Fantasy_, and the sequels), but that's it.

"And that, as they say, is that..."

_Afterwords end here._


	5. Mr Blue Sky

**Outside Kourindou**

*BANG*

A metal can deformed upon getting hit by a danmaku and fell off the stool it sat on onto the ground.

That danmaku had come from Marisa. Or more specifically, the twin revolvers she "borrowed" from Rinnosuke two weeks ago. The witch had spent the past two weeks attempting to modify the revolvers so that they fire non-lethal danmaku instead of actual bullets (she did directly ask Kotohime how the GPF's guns were modified, but the police chief refused to answer due to Marisa being "not authorized to know"). The witch's many attempts had resulted in just as many (thankfully minor) accidents, and it was only in her latest attempt that she finally succeeded in the modifications. She decided to celebrate her success by setting up several empty metal cans (she had Rinnosuke verify first that they're really worthless junks) in front of Kourindou to be used for her makeshift shooting gallery.

Of course, Marisa being Marisa, she decided to spice up her celebration with a song blasting out of her music-playing device while she took potshots at the metal cans with her modified danmaku-firing twin revolvers.

"The sun is shining in the sky~

There ain't a cloud in sight~

It stopped raining, everybody's in the play~

And don't you know, it's a beautiful new day, hey~"

As Marisa danced and sang along with her music-playing device while simultaneously taking shots at the metal cans, her mother and Rinnosuke sat at a bench next to the front door of the antique shop, watching the witch enjoying herself.

"What is she doing?" Rinnosuke asked Claire out of curiosity.

"Target-practicing with her modified Colt Navy 1853 revolvers, while dancing and singing to _Mr. Blue Sky_." Claire casually answered, while snacking out of a bento box that does not contain the usual things a bento should have.

"What are _you_ doing?" The half-Youkai shopkeeper asked another question.

"Watching my daughter do the aforementioned things, while eating popcorn that I made myself." The redheaded woman casually answered again. "Can't your ability to identify any item help you identify it?"

"Unfortunately, my ability does not work on food." Rinnosuke glanced at the bento box that contained what Claire called "popcorn".

"Want some?" Claire asked as she held the bento box toward Rinnosuke.

Rinnosuke eyed the popcorn for a bit. "No, thank you. You can have it all to yourself." He then declined.

"If you say so..." Claire withdrew the popcorn back to herself, and then popped a handful of the snack into her mouth.

Meanwhile, Marisa, having ran out of metal cans to use as targets for her shooting, simply holstered her twin revolvers as she continued to sing and dance to the song on her music-playing device.

"Running down the Avenue~

See how the sun shines brightly~

In the city, on the streets where once was pity~

Mr. Blue Sky is living her today, hey~"

Marisa's dancing came to a halt when she accidentally stepped on one of the metal cans she used for target practice earlier, and slipped, causing her to fall flat on her face.

Claire winced at the sight of her daughter's misfortune. Rinnosuke, on the other hand, had no reaction whatsoever.

The witch, instead of getting up immediately, moved her right hand over to the music-playing device to turn it off. "Ow..." She then uttered as she slowly picked herself up.

"You alright there, Genevieve?" Claire asked. There isn't much concern in her voice.

"Don't call me that!" Marisa answered back, slightly irritated by what her mother just called her.

Claire giggled in response. "So what were you planning to use these revolvers for?"

Marisa dusted her coat clean before picking up her revolvers. "Well, I'm gonna be the Fastest Gun in the West, or in this case, East, and use 'em to pop those damn Incident Culprits right in their heads." She then proudly declared while posing with the revolvers in her hands. "And for the record, I named these two Hubble and Kepler."

Claire raised an eyebrow. "Hubble and Kepler? As in the telescopes in the sky I told stories to you about?"

"Yep!"

Meanwhile, Rinnosuke, who doesn't quite understand what the mother and daughter are talking about, imagined a pair of handheld telescopes with wings flying about among the clouds in the sky.

"No, Rinno, the telescopes don't have wings, don't fly in the clouds, and looks nothing like regular telescopes." Claire interrupted the shopkeeper's thoughts.

"How do you know that was what I was thinking?"

"How would I not know? You're the same guy who once mistook a Gameboy as a device that can destroy worlds, not realizing they're _fictional_ worlds."

"Must've been pretty embarrassing for ya, huh, Rinno?" Marisa joined in as she holstered her revolvers.

Rinnosuke face-palmed. Knowing the Kirisames, they might never, ever let him live that down. _Me and my mouth..._ He mentally berated himself.

* * *

Sorry this took longer than usual to come. Stuff came up in real life for me at the last minute (don't worry, it has nothing to do with COVID-19), causing me to have to drop all of my works temporarily to deal with it.

So far, Reimu hasn't appeared in _Exotic Inventory_ yet. I have plans to introduce her here, but depending on what comes up in my mind, that could either be in the next chapter or maybe 10 chapters later, or somewhere in between. I also have plans to introduce the Little Witch Mob and Shrine Maiden Mob as side characters, but same problem applies to them.

But that probably won't be of concern for a while, since I'll be putting EI on halt temporarily after this chapter. The next chapter won't come until I've finished the _Perfect Cherry Blossom_ arc in _Seasonal Fantasy_.

"And that, as they say, is that..."

_Afterwords end here._


End file.
